Tulip Cardigan

This sweater should not have taken almost 2 years to complete. Yes, you read that right. I kept letting it languish in the UFO pile during it's many stages. The yarn was salvaged from the beautiful Trellis Sweater from Knitty.com that I never completed. Never try to finish a heavily cabled sweater after your child is born. At least not for the first year. My brain was pretty fried from the lack of sleep, plus I was trying to knit the whole thing in one piece to avoid seaming little pieces.

One night, I came to the conclusion that by the time I finished it, it would never fit her. So I frogged it. Then I became obsessed with this fair isle sweater. I rummaged around and found all the colors that I would need to make it. It took me one evening to complete the yoke. The color-work was very addicting. Then during the week, I finished the body and one sleeve. There it sat for a while. The challenge and interest was gone and I was off on the next exciting project.

My memory is fuzzy about the whole thing so bear with me. At one point, I completed the 2nd sleeve and there it sat again waiting for me to pick up the stitches to make the button bands. After another long while, both bands were knit and all the yarn ends were tediously woven in. I soaked and blocked it. Now it needed buttons.

My friends and I planned a trip to the garment district to go button shopping. We all brought our projects to find the perfect buttons. The selection was over whelming. Thank goodness I had friends there to help. Plus, the prices really varied depending on where you went. You could end up spending more on the buttons than the cost of the yarn to make the sweater. My friend, Penelope, was ever so patient and went through a million buttons before these were chosen. It fit all the criteria: worked well with the sweater, the right size for the button holes and it did not cost a small fortune to buy 8 buttons (bought 1 extra just in case we lost one). They are really cute flower shaped buttons.

You would think the story ended there, but nope. I brought the buttons home and forgot about them. Fast forward to a year later. A few weeks ago, Melody found the buttonless sweater and insisted on trying it on. She instantly fell in love with it. So, I dug around the closet until I located the buttons and quickly sewed them on . She was so thrilled when I showed her the completed sweater.

Just so you all don't think I am horrible procrastinator, I knew it was too big for her a year ago. I think that's why I never felt the need to rush to finish this. But seeing her fit that sweater so perfectly a few weeks made me realize that I did need to put those buttons on so she can wear it during this Winter. I used a worsted weight yarn to make this sweater in the 6 months size. I just made sure to knit the sleeves and body longer.

Pattern: Tulip Yoke Baby Cardigan Free Ravelry Download
Needles: US 6 - 4.0 mm
Yarn: 2 skeins of Shelridge Farm Soft Touch W4 in Green Apple. I love this yarn and always try to purchase from them at Rhinebeck every year. The rest of the color-work on the yoke was knit with small partial skeins of worsted weight yarn I had laying around.
Size: She is now almost 3 yrs old and I followed the 6 months size on the pattern, but made to sure to lengthen the sleeves and body.